Lauren Trundle is a teenage, unwed mother. Unfortunately,
in today's world that's not the travesty it was years ago,
but the family is feeling the effects. Becky, her mom, quit
work to care for Lauren's son so Lauren could finish high
school. The whole family is bearing the burden on top of
other recent catastrophic happenings. Becky's son was
killed in Iraq and now her husband, Gil, loses his job when
the company he works for goes bankrupt. They feel like they
have hit rock bottom.
Ivy Carrington works in an old folks' home where she cares
for Anna Grissom. Ivy's boyfriend, Drew, has shipped out to
fight in the Korean War. Anna guesses that Ivy is with
child. Drew is not aware of Ivy's situation. Anna begins to
tell Ivy her life's story about the home for unwed mothers
she established in the 1880s. She encourages Anna to write
Drew and tell him about their baby. When Ivy finally does,
she gets no reply. And when the nursing home discovers
Ivy's secret, they fire her. In the 1950s, society
considered being an unwed mother a travesty.
WHEN THE MORNING GLORY BLOOMS is a beautiful story about
God's love, mercy and grace. Choices that we make can
destroy our future, change relationships and rewrite our
dreams. Cynthia Ruchti has blended the past and
present in a compelling story that speaks of the love of
God and His grace that sees us through the tough times in
life. She weaves the two stories together at the end and
brings Lauren and Ivy to the same location. Perhaps Lauren
will learn some valuable lessons from Ivy, just as Ivy
learned from Anna. WHEN THE MORNING GLORY BLOOMS is a
touching story with strong, true-to-life characters; a
great read you will not want to miss.
Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years
earlier, with her fiancé Drew in the middle of the Korean
Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home
to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn't
know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who
taxes Ivy's listening ear until the day she suspects Anna's
tall tales are not the ramblings of dementia. They're
fragments of Anna's disjointed memories of a remarkable life.
Finding a faint thread of hope she can't resist tugging, Ivy
records Anna's memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to
keep up with the woman's emotion-packed, grace-hemmed
stories. Is Ivy's answer buried in Anna's past? Becky, Ivy,
Anna--three women fight a tangled vine of deception in
search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.